By the looks of Morrisville's fund balance projection, there's good reason to be talking fiscal responsibility. A town savings account or "fund balance" that drops below zero (the blue line on the graph) is not a good thing. Not at all. Yet at present, the town's plan is to spend more than we take in. Fiscal responsibility? No. No.Based on a years long pattern of overspending, our taxpayers narrowly escaped what would have been an economically devastating 19% property tax increase last year. But what about the above graph? Does this mean we have no choice but to raise property taxes to the level supported by Faulkner, Stohlman, Johnson and Snyder?
No. We can turn this around with Responsive Leadership.
We must employ conservative fiscal management of taxpayer funds and we need to start soon. We must set clear priorities based on funding needed services. We then have to stick to those priorities. And we must acknowledge that raising property taxes to fund parking lots and multi million dollar greenways is not in the best interest of residents or businesses.
These are tough economic times. With responsive leadership, we can weather them. That's why I'm asking for your vote on November 3rd.
Jackie
lackie---- I hope you get achance to show your stuff. the retoric all sounds good, but i have yet to see anyone in office show come concern to improve the area and streets on the east side of rt. 54.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, who can be proud of morrisville when they have to drive up and thru 54 and see all the junk housing and shamefull terain with all the weeds and junk laying around. We need someone to step up to the plate and make those who pretend to be in business along 54 to clean up their act. Its disgracelful.
I guess my main question is how does sticking to the basics for town spending and somehow contrbuting money for a widening of Highway 54 go together? It would cost more than the town spends in a year to widen 54.
ReplyDeleteI agree the town leaders should be pushing like crazy all over the place to get 54 widened, but in reality, a tiny tiny portion of traffic on 54 is from Morrisville so I am at a loss as to why the citizens of the town as taxpayers should bear more than maybe a couple hundred thousand in expenses.
Good point. Our present taxpayers shouldn't have to pay more than our fair share. And that's why I am proposing a cost sharing plan to address our traffic congestion.
ReplyDeleteWe have not done enough to promote sustainable growth that we can afford, haven't made funding the basics a priority. As a result, we're facing an uncomfortable reality - infrastructure improvements are needed and we don't have a plan to fund them.
In addition to road improvements, we need to replace fire station #1. Again, an uncomfortable reality - voters approved a $5.7 million dollar bond for a public safety complex. We used part of that money, rightly so, to relocate our police department. The balance should have gone toward replacing our aging fire station, not on general office space or a downtown parking lot.